I will admit it. I became overwhelmed. Now I am fully aware that I'm not supposed to feel that way. But when your family consists of mostly males and your only daughter is away at college, Christmas duties start closing in. Yes. It's just the first week of December. But I used to have almost everything done by now. Yes the tree has been decorated for over a week. And the boys got the outside lights done. Unfortunately there are still Christmas decorations in a pile under a nice Christmas throw though that still need to find a place in our home. (They were just laying out in the open but Pippa thought each un-placed decoration was hers and she kept eating them. So the Christmas throw is now more than an decoration itself!)
As our kids are basically 'grown' we had intended to give them just money this year. Maybe one gift each and some stocking stuffers. But really just money. I got to thinking though. Everyone loves to open gifts! So my husband and I discussed it and as usual, he gave me a much higher gift budget than I expected!
Then comes the not so fun part. I am not a shopper! I don't enjoy making the decisions of what I think someone else would like. Most of our kids won't even give us a clue and that's hard. But each Christmas Dillard's gives Firefighters, Police Officers and Military a 20% discount for 2 days. Knowing my time was running short, on Thursday morning I began to panic. By noon I had worked myself into such a tizzy that co-workers could obviously see! Cutting my work day a few hours short, I headed out to do some quick errands and then shopping. Whoopee........
But before I could really do much shopping, I needed hubby's Firefighter ID for Dillard's. So a trip to the fire station was in order. I was greeted by my bunker pants wearing husband who had just come back from a run. We discussed other things than shopping for a while and we had a fun conversation with another smiling fireman who always seems to be working out when I visit that particular station. Funny thing this time though. The ambulance came by. My husband introduced me as his spouse to a paramedic who was proudly proclaiming my sweetie to be his favorite fireman! I told this paramedic that my man was my favorite firefighter too of course! We had a lively conversation as my husband stood, red-faced but grinning.
Well the trip to the station gave me a little bit of a breather before I started my real task. Shopping. I'm sure that as I neared the mall my blood pressure went way up. Thankfully one of our sons met me in the men's department and has no idea what a huge help he was. While he was picking out what he liked, it gave me opportunity to know what the other boys would like and before I left I had made purchases for all five of my guys, my daughter and even a little something for myself! Thank you Dillard's for honoring our heroes and keeping me well within budget.
So. With a chunk of my shopping done, house almost decorated completely, picture Christmas cards printed, Christmas letter done and approved, all I have to do is finish shopping, wrap the gifts, address the Christmas cards (if I could find my list!), make sure I haven't forgotten anyone, bake the Christmas goodies, make the Christmas candy, finish decorating, keep Pippa out of the Christmas village......I'd better stop. I'm having trouble breathing and my heart is pounding! Tis the season.......
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